Dr. Nils Roemer
- Dean, Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology
- Director of the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies
- Arts, Humanities, and Technology Distinguished University Chair
- Stan and Barbara Rabin Distinguished Professor in Holocaust Studies
An anonymous gift established the Distinguished University Chair in 2010 to enable the School of Arts and Humanities (as it was known at the time) to recruit and retain outstanding faculty engaged in research in arts and technology. As dean of the new Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, Roemer assumed the chair in 2022.
“Our faculty and students share a deep creativity, a bold imagination and a persistent drive to generate better futures. The result is an academic excellence exemplified in our alumni who make a difference in North Texas and beyond.”
Dr. Nils Roemer, who has served in a multitude of roles since he joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2006, was named the first dean of the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology in fall 2022.
The new school was formed by the merger of the School of Arts and Humanities (A&H) and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC). Roemer led both schools as interim dean for a number of years.
Roemer’s arrival at UT Dallas as an associate professor coincided with the expansion of the Holocaust Studies Program into the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies. Since 2015, he has led the center as director.
Roemer’s research lies in the fields of modern and Jewish history, with a specific emphasis on German-Jewish history. He has a particular interest in cultural and intellectual history.
Teaching and mentoring students remain at the heart of his work at UT Dallas. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and offers graduate supervision in the areas of modern European and modern Jewish history, literature, art and philosophy.
Roemer brought the Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches to UT Dallas and almost tripled the number of endowments for the benefit of the Ackerman Center and A&H. He has been successful in building partnerships between universities and programs around the world and cultivating key volunteers to lead UT Dallas fundraising efforts.
As part of his commitment to advance the field of Holocaust studies, Roemer leads the Digital Studies of the Holocaust collaborative research project, which he started in 2018. It brings together a diverse group of faculty, students and alumni from various disciplines to introduce new ways of remembering and visualizing the Holocaust.
Roemer received a Master of Art in history, literature and philosophy from the University of Hamburg and a PhD in history from Columbia University. Before arriving at UT Dallas in 2006, Roemer was a senior lecturer for six years at the University of Southampton in England.
During the last few years, Roemer has presented papers at various international conferences, organized several conferences and published numerous books and articles. He is the author of the books Jewish Scholarship and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Germany: Between History and Faith (2005) and German City, Jewish Memory: The Story of Worms (2010).
Roemer also is co-editor of many books, including German History from the Margins (2006), Longing, Belonging, and the Making of Jewish Consumer Culture (2010), and Crossing the Atlantic: Travel and Travel Writing in Modern Times (2011).